PARENTS

On Sunday evening, over 25 girls experienced a gastronomic tour of Italy with wines from Sicily, Puglia, Tuscany and Piedmont. The emphasis was on the interplay of wines and food. Tasting a wine without food helps you to identify the raw characteristics but when accompanied, the taste is rounded and more mellow. Which wines go best with what? Salamis go better with the more robust wine of Piedmont, and milder flavoured cheeses with the whites or lighter Chianti.

Girls are beginning to be adept at identifying the variations of colour and nose and, hoping for an emerging wine writer in our midst, I was encouraging imaginative comparisons. ‘Does this wine really taste of chocolate and coffee?’ The favourite wine of the evening was a Barbaresco from Piedmont. One of the highlights of the evening was discovering obscure and unknown grapes.